Originally a comment by latsot on Actual dehumanization.
As awful as Hopkins is, the UK media are at least equally to blame (I’d argue they more to blame than Hopkins herself) for all her hateful nonsense. I don’t just mean outlets like The Sun. If anything, the more liberal outlets are even more complicit.
Hopkins has set herself up as a professional troll: professional with a capital P. According to an article I now can’t find, she has a team of people scouring news stories and (it’s presumed) coming up with the objectionable responses they can think of, which are then announced by Hopkins. Media outlets call her office for a rent-a-bigot quote. I wouldn’t be surprised if they called several times a day, regardless of whether they’re working on an article then building an article about whatever fresh horrible opinion she has on something.
One article about her is by a reporter who followed her about for a day. She was due to appear on the wishy-washy mid-morning show This Morning to say blithering things about some issue of the day. She and her staff met with the producers and presenters (and presumably lawyers) of that show and they discussed what she’d be saying. The presenters then feigned outrage on screen at what they’d earlier agreed she would say.
This is the very archetype of manufactured outrage. Her statements are cheap and guaranteed to sell so Hopkins caters to lazy journalists. They get to say awful things that they know will hurt people and blame someone else. It’s a great deal for them.
I don’t know (or much care) whether Hopkins really holds the views she announces. It doesn’t make her any less horrible if she doesn’t. But the press ought to be even more ashamed than she.
Yes. It’s very important to remember that Katie Hopkins is essentially a creation of the media. If she did not exist, it would be necessary to invent her.
Bonus irony points for sharing a surname with the Witchfinder General.
It would be very nice if you are able to find that article. Or not cite it if you can’t find it.
(Seriously, human memory is imperfect and things can get mixed up over time. I don’t trust mine that much, and I try to avoid making statements like this one.)
Ah … the great western tradition of framing all conflicts, even vitally important matters which decide the course of nations, the well being of entire populations, and potentially the course of civil rights across the globe, as if they were sporting events of no real importance, and only of passing interests to anyone who is not brain damaged, or cheering for their home team. The difference between the sides may be a choice between universal human rights and peonage for the majority but it is all about the horse race all presented with all the seriousness of a Pee Wee league score.